Little Light
by LukeNoFurther
Summary: A short story about a Guardian and his best friend Ghost, taking place shortly after Ghaul's attack on the city.


DESTINY 2 STORY

 **Little Light**

Gunfire. Explosions. Escaping ships. Crumbling buildings. Human screams of fear and terror. Cabal screams of victory. Fading Light. Amidst all this, a Guardian. Unconscious. Defeated. Lightless. Alone. His armor was broken. Cracks in the metal and tears in the cloth show every blow that had been dealt to him. He used to walk it off, to fire back at anyone who attacked him. Graceful as a Hunter. Clever as a Warlock. Strong as a Titan. He was gifted, at least that was what he thought about himself.

Now, however, he was as weak, perhaps even weaker, than he thought his enemies once were. Lying there, face-down in the rubble of the tower, maybe next to corpses of fellow Guardians and normal, innocent humans, he was worthless. He did not manage to protect the city. He was a failure. Nobody will remember who he was, or what he did, and even if they do, it will not matter. It will not matter to anyone.

He never even had friends who would still care, because he preferred to work alone. The only one who always accompanied him, who will always admire him, who will always respect him, was his Ghost. For some, their Ghosts are friends who can protect them, but who have to be protected as well. For others they are a tool. A rather talkative tool used to get power and immortality. This Guardian saw more in his Ghost. On every lonely mission, he was there. Like every other Ghost, he had revived him, healed him and helped him get information, but this one also did something that was much more important to the Guardian; He was there for him. Talked to him when he needed help. Supported him when he was sad.

They were connected like no other Guardian-Ghost duo. They saw each other as best friends, partners, maybe even more than that, if they could bear the problems of having such feelings. If a Ghost could even have such feelings. It was not entirely impossible. The Guardian was an Exo after all, which would enable them to relate to each other on a deeper level, because, in a way, they were both machines. Maybe not much, but definitely more than a Human or an Awoken could relate to it. A crazy thought, possibly insane, but the Guardian had thought about it a lot, no matter what others said about him.

The Guardian coughed. The small rocks on his body jumped up and fell to the ground. He lifted his head slightly and moved his hands towards it. Every movement made him feel a pain he had never felt before. A pain that was not just physical, but also one that would never let him forget this moment. He grabbed his helmet and hastily removed it from his head. It almost was not necessary, as most of the helmet was already missing to the point where it was impossible to tell what it once looked like.

Breathing heavily, he tried to push himself up. The pain he still felt was almost unbearable. How could this have happened? He was there, in the Tower, fighting off the Cabal. He should have won. They should have won. Ignoring the pain and focusing on staying alive, he rolled on his back and looked at the sky which appeared blurry and was black from smoke. The fire from buildings around him reflected off his right eye. His left eye was broken. Small wires stuck out from where it should have been and broken bits of metal hung from them and touched his lips.

The Guardian did not seem to care, as he just sat up and let the metal bump against his cheek. Staring into nothingness, he tried to concentrate. Tried to ignore the pain and focus. His home was destroyed. The Cabal had won. They had taken away his powers, his Light. As he thought about his lost Light, he remembered something else. The Guardian stood up quickly, as if the pain had suddenly vanished. Panicked, he looked around the area.

"Ghost?!", he yelled with a slightly raspy voice, "Ghost, where are you?!"

But no one answered. The Guardian thought about the moment when he had lost his Light, but the memories are somewhat blurry, even though it happened just a few hours ago.

* * *

The head of Cabal Legionary exploded and the black, oil like substance burst out of his body as he fell backwards over the railing and down towards the City ground.

"Nice shot. I think that was the last of them for now"

The Ghost had a slightly different voice than most others. It was a little less high pitched and more human, some may say it was feminine. After reviving his Guardian for the first time, he was shot by a Fallen Vandal sniper. He was badly damaged and had to be repaired by Amanda Holliday and somehow his voice changed after the repairs.

"Thanks", said the Guardian, "You weren't so bad yourself", he sat down, took his helmet off and smiled at his Ghost.

"Oh yeah", the Ghost floated towards him, "Wasn't I amazing when I shot all those Cabal?"

The Guardian laughed and playfully pushed the Ghost away, "Oh shut up, you know what I mean. If you want I can ask Banshee to attach a gun to you. I'm sure he can do that."

"That wouldn't be fair", the Ghost flew around, imitating a battle where he span around and floated behind cover, "I'd be the best Gunslinger the Solar System has ever seen. Bang Bang Bang".

He looked at the Guardian, who smirked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Gunslinger, huh? So you'd want to be a Hunter? Last time you wanted to be a Warlock. Next week you want to be a Titan again. Make up your mind, L"

L was a nickname of sorts that the Guardian had given his Ghost some time ago. It felt more personal to call him a name and not just 'Ghost'. The L of course stood for 'Light', or sometimes, when he wanted to tease him, 'Little'.

"Well, I can be whatever I want to be if just believe!"

"That's not how it works, Little Light."

The Ghost bumped against the Guardian's shoulder.

"Believe!"

"Okay fine", the Guardian stood up, "but before we believe we should find a way to take care of that", he pointed at the Traveller. The weird construction around him, placed there by the Red Legion, was worrying him.

"Any plans, L?"

The Ghost spun around, "Hmm, not sure. I have no idea what it is. Maybe they're planning to take the Traveller with them in this cage."

"Oh nice", the Guardian picked up his helmet, "Once we're done here I should go find their leader and ask them if they could make a tiny version of that cage. Maybe then I could control you"

The eye of the Ghost flashed, "Excuse me? I think you should be put in a cage now, preferably inside one with lots of Cabal War Beasts in it."

"Hell yeah, sounds like fun. I'll slap them to death."

"Sometimes I wonder why I even like you."

An Explosion nearby distracted them.

"I think there are more on the way", the Ghost whispered as the Guardian put his helmet back on, "Let's show them what we got"

"Yeah, let's fu-", but the Guardian could not finish his sentence. A weird, sudden feeling overcame him. He felt cold, sick and weak. He fell on his knees and next to him his Ghost fell to the ground and twitched.

"W-what is happening?", he asked with a faint, scared voice. The Guardian looked up at the Traveller. An orange shield seemed to be wrapped around it.

"I don't know…", he gently grabbed the Ghost and pulled him closer, "but stay with me, L"

He saw three Cabal Legionaries burst through a wall in front of them. With his left hand, he pushed the hurt Ghost close against his chest, while his right hand reached for his hand cannon. The Legionnaires spotted him, and laughed with their deep voices, yelling words he did not understand. He tried to aim his hand cannon but was to weak to lift it up. One of the Cabal started running towards him.

"L, I-", then he was knocked unconscious by the massive fist of the Cabal.

* * *

Why was his Ghost not with him now? He had held him close. Did the Cabal take him? The Guardian felt sadness come over him like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on his head. He could not be gone, he had to be around here somewhere.

"L?!", the Guardian screamed. Tears ran down his cheeks, at least he imagined they did. He did not care that his screams could alert any Cabal. The sounds of the ongoing battle were too loud for that.

"L?!"

Running down the pile of rubble he had been laying on, he kept yelling his friend's name, hoping he would answer, but no answer came. Stumbling over broken guns and armor, maybe with dead Guardians inside them, he kept on searching. His Ghost could not be gone. He had to be here.

"L!?"

Then, a faint beeping reached the Guardian's ears. It sounded quiet and weak, but in a way, determined.

"L? Is that you?"

The Guardian hastily ran towards the beeping sound. He did not bother to look around for Cabal soldiers, but something told him he would be safe here, at least for now. The beeping got slightly louder. He was getting closer.

"L? Are you around here?"

"Guardian...Tayjek…."

Excited to have heard his Ghost call him by his name, he ran to the spot where his voice had come from, and there he was, lying in the dirt. His eye blinking slowly, his shell damaged. The Guardian named Tayjek went on his knees and carefully picked up the damaged Ghost.

"I though I'd lost you"

"So did I", the Ghost talked slowly and his voice sounded very weak, "What happened? You look terrible."

Tayjek thought about the situation.

"They took our Light, I suppose"

"But how is that even possible?", the Ghost floated out of his Tayjek's hand."

"This weird cage we saw around the Traveller. They must've blocked its powers with that somehow."

"If our Light is gone, I shouldn't even be alive."

Tayjek grabbed his Ghost, "Don't say that. You're still here, that's all that matters. The Traveller made you, so you still have some light left I'm sure."

The Ghost made a noise that sounded like a faint chuckle.

"But I'm here with you, so I'm still suffering"

"Alright", Tayjek put the Ghost back on the ground, "I'll just leave you here then?"

"No, wait!"

"Changed your mind?"

"No, no. I was just joking. I like being with you"

The Guardian smiled, picked the Ghost up again and stood up.

"I know, L. I know. I like being with you too, I couldn't leave you here."

"Yeah I knew that"

"Stop being cocky and help me figure out what to do now."

"First I should fix you up."

Tayjek looked confused, "We don't have any light. How can you still heal me?"

"I don't really need Light just to heal your wounds."

"How does that work?"

"No idea."

A small beam of light came from the Ghost's eye and covered Tayjek. His loose eye was reattached to his face and the other wounds mended as well.

"Damn. Nice. Thanks, Little Light."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not? I think it's funny."

"Well, your sense of humor isn't that great then."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah! Remember Iron Banner last year?"

* * *

"Alright guys", a female Awoken Hunter stood in front of five other Guardians and talked to them, "I've lost two matches already and if I lose another one, I owe Cayde a hundred thousand Glimmer."

A male Warlock standing across from her, crossed his arms.

"Oh yeah? You made a bet with your best friend, Cayde? Oh wow, you're so popular. Bullshit"

The Warlock got punched in the shoulder by the Titan next to him and stumbled a little. She had a rather deep, but pleasant voice.

"Come on, Dude. Doesn't matter if she's bullshitting or not, we all just want to win, so let's work together and fight the enemy, not each other."

"Yeah, let's show em what we got!", said another Warlock.

"Bravo Team for the win!", yelled the second Hunter.

Tayjek, who was standing a bit further away from the others, looked at his Ghost, "Man these guys are serious. This is why I don't usually join the Crucible. All this teamwork makes me anxious."

His teammates spread out into smaller teams and ran off in different directions.

"No time to complain! Match is starting! You got this."

Tayjek pulled out his Eyasluna.

"I'll iron them."

"That was terrible."

He smiled and ran towards the path that none of his teammates took.

As Tayjek ran around the corner, he spotted a red light in the distance.

"Oh grea-"

A few moments later, he got revived by his Ghost.

"I hate this"

"Bad start. Guess you're not ironing anybody today."

"No. But at least he broke the ice. Maybe I should take him out on a date."

"What?"

Tayjek rolled his eyes, "Take me back to Orbit, L. I don't care about this."

"Are you mad because I didn't appreciate your puns? Hey, it's not my fault. They were pretty bad."

"Your sense of humor is worse than that of a corpse."

"Even though I'm dead too.", L bumped against Tayjek's head, "Get it? Ghosts are dead!"

"Are we going to Orbit or not?"

"Alright fine"

"I actually kinda liked that joke."

"Your humor is horrible. Just like mine."

"Glad you agree, Little Light."

Tayjek smiled and softly grabbed his Ghost as they returned to their ship.

* * *

"Yeah but…"

"But what", L said with a slightly skeptical voice.

"I was pretty pissed, alright? I hate the crucible and I hate losing even more."

"The match had just started! Your teammates probably would've carried you. They seemed super serious. I bet that Hunter was super mad at you."

"Alright, alright. Fine, you're right.", Tayjek coughed, "I guess we should be going."

"Agreed. I received a signal from the Vanguard. They're evacuating the city. We really have to be careful though, the Red Legion is not taking any prisoners and we can't really fight back at all.", the Ghost's voice cracked a few times.

"Any idea where we have to go?"

"Not really. I'd say we should just go toward the wall"

Tayjek looked around the destroyed area.

"Crap, come here.", he grabbed L and put him underneath a part of his robes that was still in rather good condition, considering the circumstances. Tayjek dove to the side and crawled under a wing that had been shot of a Guardian's jumpship. Just a moment later, heavy footsteps shook the ground and a bright light shone at the place where the Guardian and his Ghost had been standing.

"Cabal. They're probably searching for Guardians.", L whispered. The Cabal started talking in their language. A giant red plated foot crashed down a few meters from Tayjek, who carefully moved further into the shadows.

"What are they saying?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I can't hear them that well. Something about…their leader and his plans…I think his name is Ghaul. And Psion abilities for some reason."

The big Cabal Colossus stomped past them, followed by three smaller Legionaries and two Psions, one of which looked pretty beat up. Tayjek looked at the passing Cabal.

"I got a plan."

"Please don't tell me it's something stupid."

Tayjek smiled, "Oh it's very stupid, and we could die easily."

L sighed underneath Tayjek's robes, "Of course. Fine, what do you want to do?"

"You just stay here", he pulled his Ghost out from underneath his armor and let him float close to the wall next to them. Then he started crawling towards the Cabal who were walking away from their position.

"Tay!"

"Yeah?"

"I can't resurrect you."

"I know. I'll better make this count, eh, Little Light? Time to kick some Ca-balls."

Before L could respond, Tay had crawled out from underneath the wing.

"Over there!", one of the Psions yelled. The Colossus turned his big head and the bright flashlight towards the area the Psion pointed at.

"I can't see anything.", he grunted.

"I swear I saw something", the Psion said again.

One of the three Legionaries stared at the other Psion, "Did you see anything?"

"No. I didn't."

* * *

The Colossus stepped over to the first Psion and kicked its small head with his massive and heavy boot. The Psion dropped its gun and crashed into a nearby wall. The impact caused the wall to crack a bit.

"Get up.", roared the Colossus, "Ghaul told us you had some new useful abilities. Maybe you do, come on now."

The Legionaries laughed, while the other Psion stood quietly next to them. The hurt Psion got up from the ground, stumbled toward its gun and picked it up. It continued following the other Cabal, but stayed a little further behind. Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed its rifle and held it against its head.

"You better not make a sound. Can you understand me?"

The Psion understood the words the Guardian spoke, but chose not to answer.

"You got some special abilities, right? Let' see 'em. Don't use them on me though. Use them on your friends."

A weird noise came from the Psion. The Guardian pushed its rifle harder against its head. Some seconds later the other Cabal turned around.

"Where the -", they spotted the Guardian and readied their weapons. Everything else seemed to happen in slow motion.

As they began aiming at him, the Psion floated a few centimeters into the air. A line of void energy launched from under its feet towards the Cabal. The purple liquid-looking energy spread under the Cabal's feet. Suddenly they were launched about ten meters into the air, even the massive Colossus. The Psion couldn't see their faces under their helmets but it was certain that they were surprised, maybe even frightened.

The Guardian lowered the gun and made an impressed sound. Then he put the gun in a holster on his back and ran towards one of the guns that a Legionary dropped. He picked it up without much effort, even though it looked extremely heavy, and slid towards the Colossus, who had begun falling to the ground. Its massive body crashed into the ground and caused the Guardian to stumble slightly but he aimed the Legionary's gun at the head of the Colossus and pulled the trigger. His head and helmet exploded and the black, oil like liquid began oozing out of his neck.

The heavy impact of the gun caused the Guardian to fall down but he got up immediately. Meanwhile the Legionary's had recovered from their fall. One of them grabbed the head of the Psion who stood next to him and crushed it between his fingers. The other Psion who had launched them up was nowhere to be found. The remaining Legionnaires picked up their guns and looked towards the Guardian. He was standing behind the dead body of the Colossus and held his giant chaingun, which he had placed on the belly of the Cabal to hold it stable.

"Hey turtle faces!"

Before the Legionnaires could react, the bullets from the chaingun of their dead ally, rained down on them like a fierce metal storm. Their armor could not withstand the power of the heavy bullets. Every hit caused them to stumble backward and while they tried their best to stay on their feet and hold their guns, they had no chance of fighting back. Eventually all of them fell to the ground. The Guardian rolled the gun off the dead Colossus' body and began to check if any of the soldiers had more useful stuff on them.

* * *

"Hey L. You can come out now. I may need some help."

Tayjek's Ghost floated out of his little hideout.

"Tay, that was amazing!", he attempted to do a little loop but the damage he had suffered previously caused him to fall to the ground.

"L!", Tayjek ran up to his Ghost and picked him up, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah...yeah. I just kind of overestimated myself. I forgot that the damage hurt me quite a bit."

"We'll fix you up. You'll be your old sassy self in no time, Little Light."

A quiet rattle came from the Ghost.

"I can still be sassy, ya know? Next time you shouldn't hide me. I can fight those turtles with words! Better than you as well. Turtle Faces? Yeah, totally original and clever."

"I don't think they care much about insults anyway.", he let the Ghost float out of his hand, "Now come on, let's do some scavenging."

Tayjek continued his search for any useful gear.

"We're gonna get in troube again", L chuckled as he used a little beam of light to look around the area.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you forget what happened when you signed up to join a team to take down Aksis? The Devil Splicer Fallen God guy?"

* * *

Commander Zavala sighed angrily and put his hands on the table in front of him.

"What's his name?", he asked.

"Tayjek.", Ikora replied. She was standing on Zavala's right and looked quite worried, "He's a Warlock, but he never really saw me as his mentor as far as I can tell. He thinks that Guardians shouldn't just be restricted to the roles they're given."

"I mean, that's not a bad way of seeing things.", Cayde-6 leaned against the wall behind Ikora and Zavala, "Just imagine, a Warlock using Golden Gun, shootin' bad guys left and right. Obviously he would've learned it from me."

"Enough. Sorry Cayde, but I don't think we need your input here."

"What? Come on. What the kid did wasn't that serious. Yeah he messed up, but I've done worse things, ya know?"

Ikora turned around and looked at Cayde, "He's not part of the Vanguard, Cayde. He doesn't have as much power as us."

"I'm just sayin', don't be too harsh on him, okay? I think he likes me.", Cayde pulled up a chair and sat on it, "But who doesn't?"

The doors of the Vanguard's room opened and Tayjek and his Ghost came in.

"Guardian.", Zavala said, "you know why we ordered you here?"

"Not even a greeting, wow. He's super angry with you.", Cayde winked subtly at Tayjek.

Tay ignored him, in fear of seeming disrespectful.

"Yes, Commander. But I believe-"

Zavala raised a hand to signal Tay to be quiet.

"The mission we sent you on was extremely important .", Ikora's voice was a little cold, "And you put your fireteam in grave danger."

"We clearly stated that when we asked Guardians to volunteer.", Zavala said, "You knew how serious this was going to be when you accepted the mission, yet you decided to fool around."

"Commander, I want to be completely honest with you. What you call 'fooling around', I saw as important research."

"Scavenging the Devil Splicers' dangerous equipment while the rest of your fireteam is about to be eliminated is important research to you?"

"Scavenged the scavengers. Heh. Not bad", Cayde chuckled but put on a serious face as Zavala looked at him, "Uh I mean. Very bad. Don't do that. No no no no."

"My team could've waited until I was done. I just wanted to get more information about SIVA and how the Fallen used it."

"But your team was in the middle of fighting the Archpriest Vosik."

"What? Sir, that's a lie. The fight had just ended and Vosik had retreated into their stronghold. Whoever told you this, didn't speak the truth."

Ikora sighed, "Guardian. You still should not have done what you did. SIVA is dangerous. Deadly. And so are the Devil Splicers. The mission had to be abandoned because of you."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it would affect the mission."

Zavala looked directly in Tayjek's eyes, "You're banned from all Strike or Raid mission, for at least ten years."

"What?", Cayde gasped, "Ten years is pretty rough."

"Actions have consequences, Cayde."

"But nobody got hurt. I veto your ban! Do we even have vetos here? I'm not sure. I vote for the right to veto a decision."

"This was Zavala's mission, Cayde.", Ikora said, "He gets to decide what happens."

"Then why did he even bring all of us here?"

"We're always here."

"Good point. Alright . Move on."

"Anyway", Zavala seemed very calm now, "Cayde is right."

"I am? That's a very sudden mood swing."

"Ten years is a very long time. And I have to admit, you are a very talented Guardian, we may need you some day. What you have done may have endangered your team, but as Cayde said, nobody actually suffered from it. You just had to abandon the mission."

"Yup, I said that. I'm always right. Sometimes."

"Guardian, for every future mission you join, you need our direct permission first. Is that clear?"

Tayjek nodded, "Yes Commander, thank you."

Ikora smiled a little, "Now go, before your commander changes his mind. And don't do this again."

"Unless we tell you so.", Cayde stood up from his chair, "We may do that."

"Take care, Warlock. And don't listen to Cayde", Ikora said.

Tayjek smiled back, "Don't worry, thank you again."

He turned around and left the Vanguard room. As he closed the door, he looked inside and winked at Cayde.

"Phew, that went better than expected, right?", L said relieved, "Weird how quickly Commander Zavala changed his mind."

"Yeah. I'm glad we have Cayde."

"Cayde? I don't think he takes his job seriously enough."

"Oh, I think he takes it very seriously. His job is just a little...different from that of the others."

* * *

"That wasn't real trouble!", Tayjek sounded a little angry, "We've talked about this like five times now, L."

"I still think you deserved a harsher punishment, that's all I'm saying."

"What?"

"You're the most antisocial Guardian of all time but you still joined a team with five other Guardians to go on a pretty dangerous mission. That alone is a good reason to ban you from fireteams."

"Antisocial? I'm not anti-"

"I'm like the only person you talk to. And I don't even know if you can call me a person. I'm more like a cube with a personality."

"Cube?"

"Yeah, Cube."

Tayjek giggled and picked up a piece of broken Cabal armor, "You think you're a cube? Have you ever seen yourself?"

"Based on your reaction, I guess not. I feel like a cube though."

"And what does that feel like?"

"Dicey."

"Are you kidding me?"

"It feels like every side of me has a different value."

"That was actually the worst joke I've ever heard in my entire life. You sure you're alright? I'm used to hearing better stuff from you, buddy."

"Come on, you gotta give me some credit here. That one took a while to set up. I had to say the whole 'cube with a personality' thing and stuff."

"Oh yeah, sounds super exhausting."

"Shut up."

Tayjek blew a kiss towards L.

"Did you just kiss me?"

"You said I should shut up but I still wanted to show my love."

"Wow, why so cheesy all of a sudden?"

"Don't judge. Just trying to lighten the mood after your terrible joke, Little Light."

"I thought we'd agreed you'd stop calling me that!"

"Okay, sorry."

"Yeah you better be sorry. Ghostly Guardian."

"That doesn't really work.", Tayjek winked at his Ghost.

"Eh, good enough."

"How about funky Guardian?", Tayjek started dancing a little.

"But then the first letters of each word wouldn't be the same."

"Eh, good enough"

"Sometimes I have no idea why I like you."

A shot was fired from a gun that Tayjek couldn't see. A gun that would tear everything apart. Tay felt like time had been slowed down. He almost saw the projectile fly by. A projectile made of solar energy. The small flame passed his body. Then, it made its way towards L. Neither the Guardian nor the Ghost could react, even though to both of them it all seemed to happen so slowly. The projectile pierced the shell of the Ghost. It was a near perfect shot, almost right through the middle of his eye. Then the projectile came out the other end of the Ghost and diseappeared into the night.

Slowly, the Ghost started falling. His one eye split in half and dark, without light. His broken shell fell apart as he hit the ground. The next shot fired from the gun woke Tayjek up from his trance. It had hit his right shoulder, and without armor or Light, he felt the whole impact. The pain was unbearable, like someone had carved a hole in his body and then lit a in it. He turned around and spotted a Psion. The same one he had used to attack the Cabal soldiers. Without hesitation, Tayjek pulled out one of the rifles he had picked up from a Cabal earlier and killed the Psion with a well aimed shot. The pain didn't distract him, he had to concentrate. Focus on what had just happened. Tay turned around and ran towards his broken Ghost.

"L!", he kneeled down next to him and started picking up the pieces. One half was still mostly intact while the other was destroyed by the impact of the projectile. The metal shell had burst and the glass of the eye was cracked. Tay felt tears slowly running down his cheeks.

"No. No. Come on. Come on!", he didn't know what to do. Even if he did have experience in fixing a Ghost, his was beyond repair. Tay held the broken Ghost up to his face. His tears touched the shell.

"I can't lose you. I can't. Come on. We can fix this. I promised it to you."

A faint noise came from the Ghost. Tay had almost dropped it in surprise. He looked at it and saw that a part of the eye was flickering lightly.

"Can…..", the voice of the Ghost sounded very different than usual.

"I…..", more robot like.

"Can't...", like a broken robot.

"L! L? Can you hear me? Please, say something."

"Hard...to speak", the voice of the Ghost crackled, "Weak."

"But you're still here. I told you earlier we'd fix you, and now we'll fix you even better. We can build a new shell. I...We can put you in a cube this time if you want!"

"Your wound.", the Ghost's voice became a little clearer.

"Yeah I was shot, but who cares. I'm still in one piece."

Tay stood up, holding the Ghost close to his heart and ran over to one of the dead Cabal soldiers.

"We can use their armor to fix you!"

"Tay…"

"Quiet. I'll save you."

He bent down to pick up a broken piece or armor with his left hand. As he tried to grab it, the burning pain from to bullet travelled down his entire arm. Unbearable, burning pain.

"Tay...the projectile. Solar energy is stuck inside you."

"I'll manage."

More tears ran down Tayjek's face. Tears of pain, fear and sadness. He picked up the piece of armor and stood up.

"No. You won't.", L's voice was quiet but still very clear and calm, "It's melting your body. You can't stop it."

"I'll save you. I'll fix you. If I die then, you will find a way to get the Light back. Then you can revive me again. Everything will work out."

"That won't work. You can't do anything to save me."

"Hey, don't say that. Okay? You'll be fine. You'll be okay. Little Light."

"Tay….", the Ghost's blinking eye looked up at his face, "You can't. But…", a small beam of Light shot out of his eye and covered Tayjek, "I can save you."

Tayjek's pain began to fade away. The broken parts of his body began to mend together. The Solar energy left his body.

"No! What are you doing?"

"I need...to keep my Guardian alive. Even without the light...you can do great things.", the light in L's eye began to fade, "Guardian. Tayjek. Thank you. For being there for me. We had...a great life together. I…", the light flickered for the last time and then went away completely.

"L?! L?!", Tayjek shook the Ghost in his hand, "Don't mess around! I know you're there!"

But inside he knew, that he wasn't there. His Ghost, his companion, his friend, his partner, was gone.

"L….", Tayjek closed his eyes and put the Ghost close to his face, "Don't leave me….Please...I need you...my Little Light."

* * *

Lightning flashed across the sky. Thunder sounded in the distance. It had been raining for a while, but Tay didn't realize. He kneeled on the ground, holding his dead Ghost in his hands. His tears fell into the dirt and mixed themselves with the rain. Tayjek's screams of sadness sounded through the dark and lonely night. In the distance, a search group of the Red Legion, that had seen the beam Light that had come come from the Ghost, began marching towards the spot where Tayjek was mourning. His cries were even louder than the Cabal's footsteps. Cries of overwhelming sadness. Cries over the loss of the only one he had ever been close to. Cries over the fainting of his Little Light.


End file.
